300+ hours in Nightreign, prob 200+ on one character: Executor. Generally, the worst character in the game. Low HP, low damage resistance, low damage except for status procs. If you go in unga bunga you will die, you will suck. Has a special ability called suncatcher that looks very flashy but itself does almost little damage.
So let's focus on his most important feature, arguably the most important gameplay mechanic in any soulsborne:
looks very flashy
Suncatcher is basically Sekiro playstyle. He has a cursed sword that can deflect all damage, with a satisfying clang and bright sparks, if timed near-perfectly. After 5 deflections, it lights up, and lets you do a golden sweep attack. Deflecting with Suncatcher builds up some stance damage, but the weapon itself did minimal damage on its own, even the flashy golden sweep.
His ultimate was a free heal that does a little damage but ever dark bosses and Deep of Night games would kill you easily despite being a giant horned beast. His ult has some utility, like healing other players when roaring with a certain relic. Synergies were found when using the seppuku skill with his special ability, but sacrificing a huge chunk of your health pool for a brief damage buff took a lot of situational awareness to make sure I didn't get ganked mid-buff, and it still happened frequently.
A lot of players use his high Arcane stat to proc statuses but dont really even use suncatcher. I myself became obsessed with it. Eventually I developed a "stance/status/tank" playstyle: after practicing with suncatcher for a long time I got pretty good at deflecting enemy attacks, and could hold off most bosses by myself while teammates did damage, or if one team member needed to go revive another. I learned that Executor's charge attacks are best after ive procced status a couple times. I could carry teams through the base bosses as long as both players weren't completely worthless.
But ultimately, the character had a high skill floor in order to become like a medium value character. It could be argued that his sekiro-deflect is too powerful, it has a generous "perfect" window, more than we got from Sekiro, but other characters were straight easy-mode. Raider has great damage resistance, a huge health pool, incredible DPS, and the ability to nullify attacks with his special poise-counter.
But last week, they buffed Executor. They buffed suncatcher immensely. It does more stance damage, it does significantly more damage, blocking uses less stamina, can't be stance broken with perfect deflects, and many atack up relics now apply to suncatcher. This character gained immense value. I was absolutely stuck in the new Deep of Night hard mode, I struggled to make any progress in depth 2, and while ive only played a single DoN match since the buff, we easily cleared it.
With a few relics, suncatcher can be made to be significantly stronger than even a legendary Katana, available at level 1. His HP and damage negation are still low, but he can't be stance broken on perfect deflects anymore, making him much more reliable and dependent on skillful deflecting rather than the enemy's attack spam.
I have become so powerful, it is intoxicating. Absolute incredible week for Executor mains